Every years for many, many years, I would get manure mulch from our local fair grounds. I would borrow a truck and trailer and get several loads of mulch to put in my yard.
Each year I would add a few inches of mulch to the flower beds and it would keep the weeds down and the moisture in as well as fertilizing the beds. The worms love the mulch and irrigate the ground and it makes the soil so much better.

A few years back, we got some biting bird mites and I wasn't sure if they came from the mulch we got as it hadn't had time to mulch much as I got it just after the fair, or if it were from birds nests on the house.
When I put the large play area in the back yard, I wanted to put something down that would be softer for the kids and keep weeds from growing. I checked into gravel but it was expensive and I didn't want it in the grass and house and it isn't soft.
Because of that, I looked at wood chips but when I helped put them in my sisters yard, I got lots of splinters and didn't want that for the kids feet. (See here for that post.)
Since I had been putting this on my garden beds, I figured it couldn't be bad to put in the back beds and it would be free. It was GREAT for the play area and I figured if I ever wanted to make it a garden area, the ground would be better and more fertile than the red clay we have in our area that makes growing things hard.

When the phone company was fixing some lines in our area, they dug a hole in the play area and turned under what was left of my mulch covering on the play ground and that would leave me with lots of weeds in the near future. (See that post here)

My sister and I were going to use her truck and trailer to pick it up but her transmission in her truck went. After that, I called a few contractors I know asking them if they had a dump truck we could use to get a load from the fair grounds.

One had a truck and within twenty minutes, the truck was loaded and dumped and he was gone. It was SO much easier than having to shovel the load out of the trailer and truck backs.
After the many years of doing this, I learned it is much easier to put the mulch on a tarp so I can cover it in case of a wind storm as we have had a few and it ended up all over the neighbors yard.

Also, when I am shoveling it into the wheel barrels, it would get into the grass and edges of the driveway and sweeping made dusty stink all over. With the tarp, I can just lift it up and dump the last dusty mess into a wheel barrel and no sweeping needed.
You may not have access to fair grounds but many dumps have a mulching pit where you can go and get a load for not a ton of money as well. Here is a post about her getting them from the dump. Also, some tree pruning places also sell mulched branches as well.
I explained in the post yesterday that our local food bank has had lots of extra foods lately. A few weeks back, they had a huge pallet of asparagus.
They came in these cool boxes that are super strong and held 12 bunches of asparagus and had water pads in the bottom to keep the asparagus moist.
The tips were closed and beautiful and the asparagus was tasty and fresh.
The food bank asked me to deliver it to people as there was no way they would be able to give it all out. I filled up my car and spent a day or two distributing it. Most people were thrilled to get a box and freeze some.
I shard with people our favorite way to eat asparagus when I was dropping it off.
Ruth, (See a post about her here) my friend that passed away this month, was the person to share with me how she made hers. She served it at Bunko one day. She did hers on the grill but I do mine with the broiler.
I then made it this way for my girls and it soon became our favorite way to eat asparagus.
Basically, you just cut off the bottoms so that they are fresh. Line them up on a cookie sheet and drizzle olive oil on them and put salt and pepper on them. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.
You can cover it with aluminum foil for the first 8 minutes and then remove the foil for the last few minutes. Place under the broiler at about 450 degrees for about ten to twelve minutes total. If you don't cover it, it gets a bit dried but is still good.
Here is a video of how I froze the asparagus and how I prepare and use it. I am posting the same video on some other posts about asparagus so if someone looks up one post, they can see it as well.
I'm so tired and have been working on something but don't want to take the time to post about it today so I am going to share an easy recipe we made the other day since we had so much asparagus as we got tons from an overage at the local food bank.

Bring noodles to a boil. While they are cooking, about five minutes until they will be through cooking, throw in some chopped asparagus. It will steam the asparagus just enough that they have good flavor but doesn't have to get mushy as if you over boil asparagus, it goes a mushy texture.
Once you have the noodles and asparagus cooked, drain the water and put back on the burner. You can purchase cream Alfredo sauce to use if you are in a hurry. If not in a hurry, you can put in sour cream, some cream cheese and add some shredded Parmesan cheese and some shredded Colby or mozzarella. The amount of cheese depends on how many noodles you cooked.
If you like spicy food, you can add a few shakes of sriracha sauce into the mix. Stir and taste once the mixture has had time enough to warm. Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as we did. I did.
I have fallen asleep over and over just to try and post this. Sleep-itis has taken over. I Hopefully, I will finish my project today and get it posted soon.